


Colour Run

by flyby



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn
Genre: Community: khrfest, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-05
Updated: 2010-10-05
Packaged: 2017-10-12 12:19:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/124749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyby/pseuds/flyby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It'll all come out in the wash.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Colour Run

**Author's Note:**

> For khrfest, from the prompt: _Kyoko/Chrome - tenderness; "you can always come to me."_ Set somewhere around chapters 232-235-ish.

**Colour Run**

"Kyoko-san?" The voice is so soft that Kyoko almost doesn't hear it; it's really the gentle movement at the corner of her vision that catches her attention. She straightens up from sorting the laundry (whites, darks, colours they're not sure about, delicates, stains, and the half-destroyed rags that go into the pile for mending or disposal) and smiles.

"Chrome-chan. Were you looking for me?"

The other girl nods, a tiny bow-like movement, but doesn't move away from the doorpost. The white bundle in her arms isn't that strange owl creature this time, but a small collection of fabric.

"Do you have laundry?" Kyoko glances down at the piles of clothes and changes her mind, reaching for the little heap of hers and Haru's and Bianchi-san's things, tipping it into the machine. "Here, you can put it in with ours if you like."

"...Thank you." Chrome shuffles forward, placing her meagre bundle carefully into the machine. Kyoko blinks, realising that the other girl is wearing toilet slippers instead of her usual boots. She backs off a little, watching silently as Kyoko measures the detergent into the machine and closes the lid firmly, setting the dial to the medium cycle.

"There." Kyoko smiles tentatively at Chrome, who just stares back at her with her one eye. She doesn't know much about the other girl, only that she was deathly ill when Kyoko's brother brought her in, and still creeps around the base like a ghost, pale and watchful. Bianchi-san is right, she thinks, that the girl can't have known much kindness. "They'll take an hour or two to wash and dry - would you like me to bring them to your room once they're done?"

"It's fine." Chrome slides back a little further until the doorframe is at her back again, her shoulders pulled in as though she's trying to take up as little space as possible. Kyoko blinks, then smiles tentatively at her.

"You want to wait? You can sit down if you like, Chrome-chan." Hastily, she clears the pile of darks off the bench (she always tries to be extra careful with Gokudera-kun's things; she recognises the names on some of the labels. He can be a little scary sometimes), dumping them into the other machine and adding detergent and a colour sheet. Absently, she notes that they're running a little low; she'll need to ask Giannini-san whether he can help, or whether they're allowed to go out for groceries yet. Chrome just stares at her, but when Kyoko turns back she's perched on the edge of the bench, hands clasped tightly in her lap and shoulders hunched. Kyoko starts a little, because she hadn't heard her move, and tries to cover it.

"Is your training going well, Chrome-chan?" The fact of the training is obvious in the burns on Tsuna-kun's and Gokudera-kun's things, and the cuts in Yamamoto-kun's drenched hakama. Whatever it is, Kyoko thinks, it can't be worse than not knowing, than the demons her mind makes up to fill the gaping stretches of her ignorance.

Chrome nods, careful and deliberate, her one eye still fixed on Kyoko. Kyoko and Haru have wondered, quietly between themselves, what the eyepatch hides, what happened to this timid child to make her so withdrawn and watchful. It must, she thinks, be a little like being an elder sister, save for the fact that Chrome-chan must be very much stronger than her. Though she looks fragile, she's indisputably on the boys' side of the invisible, unremarked-upon line that divides their strange and makeshift household. In that, she's like Bianchi-san, who's so kind and yet somehow seems to belong to a different world.

"Ah!" Kyoko exclaims as the dryer pings from its shelf over the washers. The sheets are done; she opens the hatch to pull out the clothes, wincing a little at the heat that streams past her face, greets her hands. She and Haru-chan have been commiserating, lately, about the state of their hands; gloves and moisturising cream have been added to the shopping list they have been building in anticipation of the nebulous safe time that they have been promised. In the meantime, though, there's just so much to be done. She sets the basket down at her feet, and looks hopefully up at Chrome. "Could you help me fold them, Chrome-chan?"

"...Okay." Chrome nods again, rising diffidently and taking two tiny steps toward her. Kyoko blinks a little; there's something about the ginger way she moves, not pained but as though she's terribly uncomfortable, that makes her think...

"Ah, Chrome-chan..." Surely, Kyoko thinks, she couldn't have been so thoughtless...? But all she remembers is that Chrome was so ill when she arrived; she and Haru-chan had tried to keep out of Bianchi-san and Fuuta-kun's way, had left the infirmary carefully alone. Had they really forgotten? Guilt swamps her. "I'm sorry, I should have asked a long time ago. Do you have... that is, do you need any extra clothes and things?" There are ladies' supplies in the women's bathroom, but she's suddenly unsure whether anyone has actually pointed out the cabinet to Chrome-chan. Oh, no.

"Oh." Chrome blinks at her over an armful of bedsheet, face slowly flushing bright pink. She hunches her shoulders, ducking her head so that she's murmuring into her burden. "Kyoko-san, you don't need to – I can manage..."

"No, it's our fault for not asking." Kyoko shakes her head, standing up and brushing the lint from her apron. "Would you mind keeping an eye on the washing for a moment, Chrome-chan? I'll just go and look you out some things."

"Ah..." Chrome looks like she wants to say something, but Kyoko just smiles at her, hurrying out of the laundry room. Some of the sets that Hana gave them are still fresh in her side of the drawer in their room; enough that she can pick out a few pairs of white underwear and a bra that might not be a perfect fit, but will probably be better than nothing. Chrome is slender and pretty; Kyoko wonders how she can be as strong as it seems like she must be. Probably, she thinks, she and Haru can spare a few socks as well; even second-hand, they are clean and more comfortable than bare feet under boots, or on these cold concrete and metal floors.

"Here you go." Kyoko slips back into the laundry room, and blinks to see Chrome sitting, uncomfortable-looking, beside a pile of neatly folded sheets. "Oh, you finished those for me? Thank you, Chrome-chan."

"Um." Chrome ducks her head shyly, blush burning across her pale cheekbones. Really, Kyoko thinks with a smile, she's so guileless; surely she can't know how cute she looks. "I didn't know where to put them..."

"It's fine," Kyoko assures her, shifting the pile a little to sit down beside her. "Here, you can keep these. It's not much, I know, but Bianchi-san says we might be able to go out for supplies in a day or two so we're all managing until then. Do you need any, ah, supplies for the bathroom and so on?"

Chrome just blinks at her, slow, as though she's carefully absorbing every one of Kyoko's words, but after a moment she does reach out for the little bundle, cradling it close to her chest much as she does her owl.

(The owl is cute, too, but Kyoko is quietly sure that much like Gokudera-kun's cat it is... something other than a pet. What that might be, she and Haru haven't put together yet.)

"I'm fine," Chrome all but whispers; Kyoko leans a little closer to hear her, turning her attention to the spinning of the washing in the machines when Chrome just shrinks in on herself.

"All right. There are plenty of things in the bathroom cabinets, but if you need anything else you can just ask me, okay? Haru-chan too," she adds as an afterthought; she should probably share this, so that they can be on the watch to help Chrome-chan. It seems like she's the kind of person who doesn't like to bother others.

"...Thank you." Chrome nods awkwardly, her one eye fixed determinedly on her lap. She shifts a little, her shoulder brushing warm against Kyoko's. "Kyoko-san is very kind."

"Chrome-chan is a kind person, too." Kyoko smiles at her, at the startled way the blush suffuses her skin again. "I think you must be very brave." She glances at the door, but there's been no sign of Tsuna-kun or her big brother since they'd left for their training after breakfast, and she sees no harm in admitting this to Chrome, at least. "I still don't understand this future much, but I've been scared since we came here. I... think everyone has."

"It's okay," Chrome murmurs, looking down at her lap for a moment before glancing up at Kyoko who's startled by the sudden determination in her eyes. "I'll protect Kyoko-san and Haru-san. Boss and everyone else, too."

"Ah..." It's Kyoko's turn to lose her words as Chrome leans in, kissing her cheek in a startling brush of soft, warm lips. "Chrome-chan...?"

"Thank you," Chrome says close to her ear, her hair tickling Kyoko's face, before she jumps to her feet and trots out of the laundry room, face pink and eyes averted. Kyoko just blinks after her for a long moment, before remembering.

"Oh! Chrome-chan, your laundry!" There's no reply, though, and as Chrome's footsteps in the corridor fade into silence, she smiles. "I guess I'll bring it to you later, then." Chrome-chan really is a gentle child, after all.


End file.
